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Personal accountability lost in the U.S.

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I found Leonard Pitts Jr.’s Monday op-ed column, “The shameful practice of forced sterilization
continues today,” to be completely offensive. He asserted that in America today we are “forcing”
those who are less fortunate to be sterilized, based on a report about California prison
system.

Particularly offensive were his correlations to Nazis and implications that Fox News and former
presidential candidate Mitt Romney would support forced sterilization to save the taxpayers’ money
to further suppress the “irredeemable 47 percent.” That is politically motivated racism.

When a woman has sex without using birth control and she becomes pregnant as a result, she and
the individual she had sex with are responsible for the emotional and financial well-being of that
child until he reaches the age of 18. If she cannot adequately provide for a child either
emotionally or financially, she should not be having sex without using an adequate form of birth
control.

I would argue that bringing children into anything less than an emotionally and financially
stable household is what perpetuates “suppression” because it creates a cycle of irresponsible
behavior.

Pitts supported his accusations with a story about a woman with five children who was serving
time in prison, who felt “pressured” by the prison into tubal litigation. Is she emotionally and
financially supporting her existing five children while she is in prison? Did she have a choice to
have the surgery? Did she consider the welfare of her existing children when making that choice? If
so, she can’t cry “foul” now.

Pitts’ viewpoint is a classic example of how we have lost sight of personal accountability and
responsibility for our own actions and choices in America. We are perpetuating a society of people
who refuse to accept responsibility, blame others for their situations and then expect support. The
real crime here is against the children born into these situations, not against the irresponsible
people creating them.